Sometimes it seems that an asterisk hangs over the name of Jonas Vingegaard, an orthographic symbol that warns of an anomaly, of an alteration, of a caveat. As if his victory in the 2022 Tour de France needed an explanation, as if he was forced to delve into what happened and point out that his rival forgot to eat and fell, respectively, in the two queen stages of the proof. But the truth is that the two minutes and 43 seconds he took from Tadej Pogacar in Paris speak volumes about the clarity of his victory and the kind of cyclist that the Danish Jumbo rider is, who will start on July 1 in Bilbao his title defense.
Methodical and self-sacrificing, Vingegaard is not one to raise his voice or demand that they give him house. He prefers to go covered. He doesn’t care that the lights are for someone else. But in his own way, with work and results, he has earned the right to be ranked as the first favorite to win the 2023 Tour. He is not a troupe.
In the Giro Evenepoel and Geraint Thomas were seen giving away the jersey. Vingegaard, 26, doesn’t mind running with the leader’s jersey behind him, he doesn’t feel dizzy. This has been demonstrated this year in the Galician Gran Camiño, the Basque Itzulia and these days in the Dauphiné, in the French Rhône and Alps, the best preparation for the Tour.
Second in the time trial and winner in Salins les Bains, this Saturday he also took the great mountain stage in which La Madelaine, Mollard and Croix de Fer were climbed. With 5.2 km to go, he took advantage of the pace of his teammate Valter – few teams use strategy like Jumbo, to attack and take 40 more seconds from Adam Yates (UAE). The Dauphiné is usually a race that is won with little difference because nobody wants to teach or spend too much for the Tour, but the Dane’s advantage (2m11s, with today’s final stage to go) is reminiscent of Armstrong’s in 2003 or Indurain’s in 1995, which were the last to dominate by more than two minutes.
Despite the defeat in Paris-Nice, at the hands of, of course, Pogacar, his approach to the Tour has been impeccable. On the other hand, that of the Slovenian from the UAE went wrong on Sant Jordi’s day when he fell in Liège. He had to undergo surgery on his left wrist, where he still wears a black splint to protect it when he grips the handlebars.
The 24-year-old Pogacar’s plan, great in the spring classics, was to reappear in the Tour of Slovenia, which he has won the last two years, which starts on Wednesday but he has decided to stay training at altitude in Sierra Nevada and alter his path . Before the Tour, the winner on the Champs-Élysées in 2020 and 2021 will only compete in the national time trial and road championships. Barely 200 kilometers after two months without competing is to place a question mark in the form of the applicant, especially before a champion who wants to erase the asterisk from him.
